A crossover success
O Disney and Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts marked its 20th anniversary
JUST over two decades ago, the videogame landscape saw arguably its most ambitious crossover – at that point in time – when the world of SquareSoft’s Final Fantasy games collided with the world of The Walt Disney Company’s intellectual properties in Kingdom Hearts.
An action role-playing game, Kingdom Hearts was an original story that had it’s main character, Sora fight the forces of darkness across multiple “worlds” that were based on existing Disney movies.
Along the way, Sora is aided by Donald Duck and Goofy, and comes across various characters from the Final Fantasy games that were released before 2002 (such as Cloud Strife from 1997’s Final Fantasy VII), along with Disney characters from the world they exist within (such as Tarzan in the world based on 1999’s Tarzan animated film).
Some of these characters would help Sora in battle, and other characters – particularly the villanous Disney ones – would be enemies.
The game was an instant success when it initially released in Japan, and then it would become a worldwide hit after releasing worldwide by November in the same year.
Directed by SquareSoft’s Tetsuya Nomura, the game ended up becoming the tenth bestselling PlayStation 2 game of all time.
The cost of expansion Kingdom Hearts’ behemoth commercial and critical success would go on to spawn an entire franchise.
In the span of 20 years, the franchise saw the release of three main games (Kingdom Hearts in 2002, Kingdom Hearts II in 2005 and Kingdom Hearts III in 2019).
Between each of those games, the nowSquare Enix released 12 spin-offs, sequels and prequels. Two more were released since Kingdom Hearts III in 2019, and another two are on the way.
As the games were released on different platforms, in different formats and in different countries, the situation was more often than not complicated for players to get their hands on some of the games, as they either didn’t have the specific gaming device, or they were in a country that the games weren’t released in.
In effect, these “in-between games” were a logistical nightmare, particularly compounded by the silly titles these games are released with (and then rebranded to).
On top of all of that, there’s the story. In Kingdom Hearts, the story was fairly straightforward and somewhat simple. The successive games on the other hand, gradually made everything messy to the point that even fans have trouble keeping up with Nomura’s contrived, convoluted and – at times – just nonsensical vision.
Persisting time
Despite the inherently silly nature of the franchise’s plot, overarching machinations and perpetually confusing expansion of the lore that is funny to both those playing these games and others watching from the outside, these games’ indelible mark on gamers and fans has more to do with its cultural impact than anything else.
Kingdom Hearts hit game store shelves in 2002, when gamers at that point in time – the millennial generation – were leaving their childhood behind and stepping into a new world of puberty.
In that first game – and every game since then – there is the constant symbolism of growing up etched in the games, and they aren’t subtle in the least.
For example, each game’s protagonist desperately trying to reach out to his friends, and while they’re in view, they’re also moving further away from him.
Like I said; unsubtle. But when fans of the games played their first Kingdom Hearts game as young kids or teens, they would’ve felt it, even if it was subconsciously, there is a clear moment when these individuals are hit by that sensation of similarity that parallels their own life in the real world.
Beyond the silliness of the main character using oversized keys to beat up enemies bluntly, or how each of the games’ fictional and Disney worlds have “hearts” that need to be saved from darkness, or how anyone that dies will leave behind a “shell” and “spirit” that will become clones, the franchise’s cultural tether is linked to players who were growing up into an unknown adult world.
It’s why die-hard fans – who are now in their late 20s and early 30s – are still crazy about these games.
That’s part of the Kingdom Hearts experience, and why it has endured for 20 years and will continue to, what with Square Enix revealing a teaser trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV.